This book is way to big to study for the exam.It does cover most of the topics related to vb and serves quite ok as a vb reference book for the basics.But for the exam go Foxall.This may help for stuff like the Treeview controls and menu bars but is too fat to digest before the exam.And yes the practice test that come with it , well they just s**k.The answers are wrong and some question's topics are not even covered in the book

I used more that this book, but I thought this was the best coverage and prep. Definitely not for beginners, does have some errors, but definitely has good excersises at the end of each chapter to make you apply and use the concept and details required...

As a working VB and ASP pgmr ya don't use all the features reguired to pass the test. This book does supply the complete range on knowledge required for the exam. This book, the product doc and all the practice exams you can find will get ya thru the tests...

New Riders Books are one of the most awful books You could ever find: 1) Completely useless Index
ok, lets talk about this book - (besides useless index some more frustrating things):
1) A lot of mistakes in (Apply your knowledge) exercises - How the heck Im going to apply it with mistakes??? and of course they most of the times refer to examples in the middle of chapters (which are small piece of code most of the time also not working)
2) I threw this book garbage when in 3rd attempt trying to read ended in MTS chapter which said - "We are assuming that You are using Windows NT 4.0 Server with MTS installed"
Well im using Windows XP/2000 Professional and I have no clue how to install MTS ( and believe me You dont find that in the book).

So everybody in their right mind - DONT BUY Easy Rider books.

I know I tried using one of their books for SQLServer7 exam. I passed it not because I read the book but because I had Experience in Oracle SQL language and I used Practice exams from STS

This is a pretty good reference (I still have it and use it), but it is too big for the material covered. My bookshelves are overflowing (I have gotten rid of many GOOD books) and it is frustrating when a book is good enough to keep, but the material could have fit into a space half its size. Still, one of the better VB6 references.

Many people think they can just pass the VB6 exams without experience and/or think that all the exam guides should just give them the answers. This is a huge misconception. Microsoft tests (at least for the MCSD track) are designed to fail those who only have book knowledge and not used the product.

Hawhee's VB5 book was "overcomplete" it was a big huge mess that if you could get through it (and I couldn't) *practicing* each skill along the way, you could pass the exam (and I didn't.)

However the VB6 book is nicely trimmed down to it's most pertinent points. There isn't much coverage on IIS applications and DHTML applications, but far more than there is any of the other books. It's still far more than you need for the exam, but if you practice the exercises, and really study the questions and text, not only will you know most everything you need for the exam, but most everything you will need for VB as well.

I passed the VB6 exams in a large part because this book filled in the holes that Foxall's book couldn't (or rather, wouldn't!)

I would recommend this book be supplimented with Transcender exams though.

This book was one of the first ones I purchased when studying for the MCSD. However, within the first 2 chapters I found over 8 mistakes that would have cost points on the exam.
While the labs in this book are useful, they do not work straight out of the book.
I went out and bought other books to help me pass the exam. While you may get by with this book, you'll come up short more often than not.

Just because it's an MS approved study guide doesn't mean it's correct. All that means is that it covered the essential areas of the exam requirements, not that the information was correct. Most VB courses do this, but you can't pass the exam from them.

Both the book itself and the testing software have a lot of mistakes and inconsistent information. The text of the book says one thing, but the test answers say something different. Because of this I often had to stop, and research from other sources to find out whether the text in the chapters, or the answers from the review and exam questions was correct. And I've downloaded the errata from their website, and it covers some of the inconsistent information, but not nearly all of it. For a book that was published almost 2 years ago, you'd think they could put correct info out there to use.

And their testing software apparently has no updates; but it has a lot of incorrect info in it also. So you may get a lower score when you take their tests than you should have received.

The first time I took 070-176 I failed (in the 60% range). Then I decided I would try a book so I bought this one. After 2 weeks with the book I Passed 070-176 and two weeks more I passed 070-175. This book is the ONLY study material I used and I rarely even use the VB Development Enviornment.

I have programmed in VBA for several years and have a fair amount of experience with Visual Basic 6. I thought this would be a good book to augment my VB6 knowledge. With that kind of background I did fairly well with this book until Chapter 12 (COM).

A beginner would have problems with this book because the exercises often skip critical steps. For example, a couple of exercises in Chapter 12 instruct the reader to use a complied component from a previous exercise in the chapter as though it had already been compiled (and, therefore, registered), but the steps in the previous exercise never involved compiling. Also, exercise steps often refer to the same controls using different names in different steps. In short, you'll spend a lot of time filling in the blanks, that is, if you are already knowledgeable enough to spot and fix them. It is obvious that the exercises were created in a hurry and published with little, if any, verification.

This book is a thought-starter for the exam concepts at best, but truly learning and feeling comfortable with them will require more of a hands-on approach.

First time I went to take the exam (70-175) I used Study Guide by Michael Lee and failed. I missed 2.8% to pass the exam. But the book so poorly covered the topics, that after the test I could not even remember all of the questions. I read the critics for this book, bought it, learned for one month, went for the exam again and failed. Only second time I missed more than 10% to pass the exam.
I noticed that the people who passed the exam used the Transcender test and that could be the key for success. Or perhaps is still better to have much of programming experience. My experience: only this book will not make you pass the exam.

This book contains all the information you need to pass the Desktop Exam (I have not done the distributed yet).

The detail contained is at the appropriate level for the exam if you have some experience using VB, the commonly used controls, and a splattering of COM.

The test questions are excelent for reviewing each chapter, but are not the same format as the exams themselves. If used in conjunction with transcender exams for fine tuning (and some hard work) you cannot fail!

The book is pitched at people who are familiar with VB, if have not used vb much then go get a "learn how to program using VB book", this is a "learn what you need to know to pass the exam" book.

This huge book (1300 pages) is the combined work of five authors and three editors, and is designed to teach the material that appears on the 70-175 and 70-176 exams. Considering that there is a lot of overlap on those two exams, it is natural to tackle them in the same study guide. If you make it through this book, you will be knowledgeable, but will probably not translate to on the job success.

Like all MCSD exam books, this is not a "how-to" or a tutorial. It is a well written and verbose study guide (which could have communicated the information in half the space). In some areas it presents too much information and I felt it became too cluttered with screen shots. In many other areas, it lacks depth. Likewise, if you are looking for a book to teach you Visual Basic programming, this book is obviously not it. On the other hand, if you are just looking to pass the exam and don't mind a little extra easy reading, this is your book.

I do like the format. The chapters are usually focused and small. Chapter objectives are presented, then the material, then case studies, and then review questions (and answers) to reinforce the material. It makes it easy break the monotonous study routine in manageable pieces (like a chapter a night).

Although this book lacks depth in many areas, it is one of the better study guides that I have purchased on the subject.

There is serious "how to" information lacking. This is a very large book creating a very large disappointment.

This book is full of errors; if you try to prepare for an MCP exam, use it with caution. When I used it, I always had to use MSDN, because there are few pages without *serious* errors. Numerous code examples in this book won't even compile with VB; it's only advantage is the hierarchy of topics, which really helps you to find the necessary things in MSDN. I wouldn't buy this book for 50-60 dollars.

Although this book had some good features to it, it is the structure of the MCP exams that make this book rather useless for learning VB as a production-level language. The exams seem to test on totally irrlevant aspects of the product, and do not focus much on writing Visual Basic code.

Visual Basic is a programming language as well as a product. This book, as well as the MCP exams, do not focus on the actual language (code). It focusses entirely on the specifics of the product, such as the intrinsic controls and the specifics of each dialog box (fairly irrelevent topics in the real world). Writing code is what we do in the REAL world. Using controls such as the Data Designer or the ADO Data Control are meant for prototyping or for novice "power users" who need to build a database front-end quickly (hence Micosoft's use of the term RAD). We NEVER use these controls in the real world, but this book and the exams focus heavily on them. Microsoft has tried to market VB for people at all levels, from the small workgroup that is using a local Access database to the software developers building complex business applications on SQL Server or Oracle and to the engineers building object models. In doing so, VB has gotten a reputation for producing sub par apps (because of novice people who feel they can learn the product in a week and build high quality apps using the controls I mentioned above). Real software written in VB is done meticulously and uses a lot of carefully developed code. You will not learn how to do this with this book; that knowledge is gained through experience only. Also, to illustrate another topic covered heavily in this book and on the exams, but is not used in the real world, the Package and Deployment Wizard is probably the most useless VB feature out there. There are build enginneers in every development shop that handle this area. In my 3 years of VB and SQL programming, I have never once used this feature (and we produce award winning software). As a developer, you write the code, then the build team will make an installation program, register all the controls and handle dll dependencies.

Furthermore, certification itself is really only useful (in the job market) only if you have significant experience (and even then not that much). I suggest that anyone thinking about getting certified consider also learing how software is written in the real world. Learn the actual language of Visual Basic and how to write code before attempting to pursue a career or take certification exams.

Using this book alone you can pass 70-175 and 70-176. You can not learn VB from this book, it assumes you know VB and would like to prove that by getting certified. I have passed both tests, a 942 on 176 and high 800's on 175. It amazes me that people use certification exams to learn the subject... If you don't already know the subject, why bother with the exam?

After reading the rave reviews this book is getting, I'm worried about what else may be out there. While this book is full of information, there are several mistakes PER CHAPTER. In the first three chapters alone there are at least 8 mistakes in the labs and the test questions. In several of the labs the screenshots don't match what the text tells you to do. If you follow the labs as written, often you'll find they tell you to do something that can't be done from where they've lead you to. The sidebar examples don't match up with the text, which is confusing for someone new to VB. I found though, that in trying to make the labs work I had to do a lot of research on my own, this is where I learned the most. I took the transcender exams and found that almost 1/3 the questions on there are in topics or issues that this book didn't even touch. The MCSD In A Nutshell book is a must have companion to this one. I wouldn't rely on this book alone to guarentee a passing grade.

This book is the best book I have seen for taking the MCSD Visual basic Desktop and Distributed tests. I have also read the Microsoft Certified press books, and this is far more in depth and easy to read.

The best feature of this book is the way it covers both exams in the same book. Since much of the information is overlapped in the exams, this is a good way to not repeat your studying. I found that for the Distributed exam, I could gloss over the interface chapters, and for the Desktop exam I could gloss over the MTS chapters.

I would strongly urge anyone preparing for the MCSD exams to purchase this book. It is, however, not a replacement for the Transcenders.

If it weren't for the fact that I don't believe in giving any book a five star rating this one would have come close. Coupled with the Transcender exams I passed the 70-176 exam today with a score of 928. No tricks, no cheats... simply STUDY (not read) the book, do the exercises and use the Transcender exams. The book contains excellent review and multiple choice exam questions. On top of this, many chapters also inclued case studys to get you thinking about how to apply what you have learnt. I would recommend this book to anyone studying for these exams.

I'll give 4.5 stars to this book if I could. Why?

Having 3 years VB programming experience, I brought this book 3 months ago when I decided taking MCSD #70-176 exam, by myself -- not my boss. I've read through it, did the exercises at each end of chapter, and did the test on the CDROM. Also I've read "MCSD VB 70-176 Exam Prep" book and "MCSD VB 70-196 Exam Cram" book.

Here's what I feel about this book: Pros -- 1. Best of MCSD VB Exam Guide, for both beginning and advanced VB programmer; 2. It teaches you every issue of the test, good presentation.

Cons -- 1. Less information about Exam 70-175; 2. Last 4 chapters can be cut 1/4, too wordy! 3. "Study strategies" on beginning of each chapter can be cut off, it's useless, just annoying!

Here's my sugestion: 1. Read this book first, carefully, take note, do the Exercises at end of each chapters; 2. Don't waste your time in reading "MCSD VB #70=-176 Exam Prep" book -- New Rider book is better! 3. Read "MCSD in a Nutshell" book for further deep study; 4. Read "MCSD VB 70-176 Exam Cram" book for a quick review before the exam.

-- That's what I am doing. Now I'm ready! -- I'll take the exam next week...

I am a person that like to jump to the tests before reading the book. Well Lets say I encountered 3 Wrong Answers on the Test and this is not acceptable for any person for exam preperation. I can understand typos but when the back of the book says "Accurate" what a joke. By the way: whats greater that 74. 75 and above but the book doesnt seem to think so. It says the answer to finding a record in a ADO recordset where the Number is less than 75. heres ther correct answer. .Find "ID > 74", adSearchForward. Hmmm Whats wrong with this picture. This is one of many misleading errors. Due to the Accuracy of the Tests I have to say the book fails in its purpose (Exam Preparation). Errors in the Book OK, but on the actual exams and questions NOT OK for exam preperation.

I am a VB developer who has worked with VB for about 3-4 years. So I decided to pick this book in terms of what it covered since it had both VB exams in the MCSD curriculum.

There was no need for me to get certified really. I just felt like doing it. So what can I tell you about this book??? I think it would be best to describe it in relating to you my test taking experience. I decided to take the 70-175 Distributed test first.

I failed. I got 685 and needed 728 (failed by 4.3%).

I then decied a month or so later to take the Desktop 70-176 exam

I failed. I got 700 and needed 714 (failed by 1.4%).

So how did the book help me?? I'll put it to you this way best in pros and cons.

PRO:

1) This is a great reference book in finding out properties of controls and what is covered for the exam, and some techniques.

2) It is organized very well.

3) You will learn things in VB (as I did) that you may never had needed, or never knew existed ( and you know what?? some of that is pretty COOL!).

CON: (there are MANY)

1) If you do not know VB at all, or god forbid programming you will not have a hope in hell of understanding this book.

2) The book is CHOC full of errors. Even the error list that you can get from the publishers web site doesn't cover all the mistakes

2a) Bad code in the examples that is just plain wrong or incomplete.

2b) Incorrect answers in the back of the book that either have the wrong answer highlighted (A when the explanation is answer B), or stuff that is plain wrong such as in Exercise 20.4 (Compiler Constants CONTRADICTS the fast fact for exam 70-176 page 1033, 'A value for a compiler option set in the command line overrides the value set in code' WRONG try the exercise!)

Now tech manuals are known for their mistakes, but if you need to know something as the CORRECT answer, and it is not given or worse WRONG, then you start having doubts about what you are learning. The numerous amount of errors in this book are INEXSCUSABLE!!!

3) Many of the examples have POOR instructions (Chapter 13 is notorious). I could figure out pretty much all of them, but if you don't know VB you will have a VERY hard time getting it.

4) Would it hurt to have the source code on the CD!! (they probably didn't do this cause they knew the examples provided were half a**)

5) The practice questions and exams fail CONSTANTLY to mention whether you should select more than one answer! You get the idea from then on that other questions are not neccesarily a one answer question. It is clear on the exam (you will get either SELECT ALL THAT APPLY, OR Select 2, 3 etc..)

6) The book makes NO NOTE of WHAT YOU NEED TO USE THIS BOOK! This has to be The ONLY tech book I have ever bought that DOES not tell you what you need (in terms of software). You will need SQL to do some of the exercises in Chapter 9, and you should do some of the exercises related to MTS with NT. If you don't have them, you are leaving out important information that you need to know in the exam. Did I mention you'd need at least VB professional??? Luckily I have all these things.

7) For exam 70-175 this book is too weak in areas of n-tier concepts and the MTS is not covered good enough. This book is not really geared towards this exam.

8) For exam 70-176 this book is weak on PDW. This book however, is geared more towards the Desktop exam.

9) The practice CD exams, Study cards etc.. have stuff that is NOT EVEN COVERED IN THE TEXT. You tell me in the book in Chapter 3 where they discuss Drag Drop events..

10) Many of the explanations to the answers in the practice test s on the CD examples tell you nothing in relation to the question.

11) Due to the numerous amount of controls and properties of controls in VB you can NOT memorize them all and the book CAN'T cover them all.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Other reviews I have read here, have expressed faults that I think are reliable as well.

So is my review biased cause i failed??? No... The simple reality is that I failed these exams for one simple reason.

I DO NOT.. and WILL NOT... remember anal things like, what setting is on what, tab under what option, under what menu item. OR EVEN WORSE.. What are all the parameters names, and values for event X (just one eg.).

Any programmer/developer who does this is NUTS! You show me something in VB and you say to me 'what is this' I either say it is blah, or I don't know but I'll check MSDN and get you your answer. I do not say, oh the setting on tab X under menu Y does this if blah blah blah. Give me a break...

There were also questions on the exam that I WOULD NEVER do in my applications (like use the Data Environment designer), so of course I don't know the names of all the events for a connection object and I am smart enough to know that I WOULD NEVER PUT CODE THERE IF YOU PUT A BULLET TO MY HEAD. Also I debug my program only a certain way.. thus questions on Watches I could care less.

So you think I am bitter. Well no I am not (seriously). Yes there were questions on the exams (both of them) that I had no idea what they were talking about. And I think some of the theory oriented stuff (I seem to get murdered on the Establishing the Development Environment section(s)), I look at as not applicaple to the REAL WORLD! Sure this is the optimal solution.. but your boss says, we don't have the cash or I WANT it this way period. I think this clouds my judgement on these questions.

So I can not recommend this book cause the cons are just too numerous. The best advice I can leave with you (if you are thinking of VB certification) is the following:

"Do not get certified in something you do not know".

Ecspecially if you do not know VB. Make sure that you have worked with ALL the concepts in this book fully in a real world environment and you wont even need a book to pass the exams.

And I know there's people out there who can just retain information and memorize stuff and pass tests like it is nothing. But it wont help you if you can memorize everything pass this test, and then get planted in front of a terminal and someone says make THIS. You will be screwed (or at least have to be retrained in what you supposedly already know).

There was someone here who posted that they had no knowledge of VB but passed both these exams. Unless this person is a programmer in a different language, I find this a very FRIGHTENING prospect. I know that I would never work for such an organization (or said individual) who matched the above description.

Hope this review has been helpful.

PS. Buy good tutorial books on VB and make stuff, don't study/buy this book if you want to pass the exam.

The cover, chapter organization with objectives, study strategy, and so forth, all suggest that this is a comprehensive, well thought out product. It is NOT!

The actual text is a mish-mash that reads more like a catalog than a text book. The teaching aids were layered on top of a product that seems like a brain dump, not a planned, organized exposition. And the errors are very disturbing; they are littered throughout the text. Prepare to be frustrated by the poor continuity and segues from hell. Terms are often used extensively before being defined, as example. Much of the subject matter is assumed to be known in advance, so the presentation that is offered ends up being rather weak.

I am looking for a better text! You should, too.

This book is very good and helps you learn VB but it isn't complete enough to pass the test. I used this book solely the first time I took the Desktop VB Test and got a 685 and barely didn't pass. I then bought the Transcender prep test and got a 871 today. So if you have both the Transcender product and this book and you should not have a problem. Chap 9 of the book WILL be on the 70-176 test. Also, look at the MSDN online help for Package and Deployment Wizard. Know about the Data Report also.

I spent 8 weeks studying for the exams and passed both comfortably. I did not find either of them easy. To prepare, I read the book and the exercises twice. The first time through, I answered all the review and test questions at the end of each chapter, and read all their answers. The second time through, I took 43 pages of condensed notes and reviewed them several times before the test. After all that, I still failed both practice tests at the end of the book. And I failed the first test I took on the CD. After that, I took 3 more tests on the CD and made passing scores. After each test, I looked up and corrected each wrong answer.

If you use this book as your only source, you will definitely need to take notes, and you will definitely need to take several practice exams, to learn how to test. I found the practice tests very much like the real thing. The most disappointing thing to me was the number of incorrect answers on the practice tests. Each time I tested, I thought between 3 and 6 of their answers were incorrect.

I would recommend this book as an inexpensive way to prepare for the two VB tests. Just be prepared for a lot of work.

I decided to buy this book because of the high ratings in this site and is pleased to report that this is the best book I've seen that covers both exam 70-028 and 70-029. Make sure to do all the exercises at the end of each chapter to have a hands-on experience of the concepts being taught. Exam questions at the end of each chapter also makes you retain more of what you've read so make sure you go through those too. Although this book is by no means complete, gaps could be filled in by searching some of the topics it missed using the product's online help. Specially lacking is its Package and Deployment chapter. The accompanying CD gives you some feel on what it is like to take the exam but Transcender comes closer to the real thing than the software packaged with this book. Errors in the text and the exercises could sometimes fluster you but a quick trip to the publishers website for the latest errata for this book could help you catch the more obvious mistakes.

Overall, this book is a valuable resource for the exam and as a handy reference even after the exam.

I went through the Microsoft training course at a local school and failed the exam the first time. The curriculum was very light on the Package and Deployment Wizard which is covered thoroughly in exam 70-176. This book covers the material in-depth and helped me pass the exam. I used the book almost exclusively to pass 70-175. The book is very thorough in its treatment of the topics without being needlessly technical or verbose. I highly recommend this book to any prospective MCP!

This is the third manual I have used in the pursuit of the MCP Certification in VB6. Overkill? Maybe. IF I had bought this book first, I would not have needed the others. The other 2 were Microsoft Press books (see my other reviews) that when combined, did not even come close to covering the material in this tome in appropriate detail.

Although its 1300 pages may be daunting at first, it is packed with useful information for certification and beyond, without a lot of silly fluff. It covers in detail: ActiveX controls, COM components, callbacks, error-handling and debugging, data access, creating user-help, all the way through packaging and deploying your applications via disk, network or web.

Beginners beware- this is not the book to start learning VB. Once you have the fundamentals of the language and want to take yourself to the next level with certification, then purchase this book.

Buy it if you plan to take the test. It's well written, covers all exam objectives excellently, but it's rather bulky.

First of all, EVERY computer book has errors. Big deal. If you can spot them, you're a good programmer, but I'm sure there's mistakes in all our code too. The point is that Hawhee's book is a GREAT reference tool, and the exam simulation CD that comes with it was a help also. This book will get you about 75%-80% ready for the desktop exam (NO book can do 100%). He gives you way more info than you need for the test, sort of like drinking out of a firehose. BUT, if you supplement it with the Visual Basic 6.0 Programmer's Guide (that every VB developer should have ANYWAY), you should do fine. The exam seems to be based off of Programmer's Guide (makes sense if it's Microsoft). I passed the exam on the second try (not Hawhee's fault by any means). For you first-timers, the fail rate for first-time takers is roughly 80%...

HOWEVER, where most books get shelved after the exam, Hawhee's book will continue to be a great reference tool in your job. Highly suggested.

With no previous VB experience I used this book and MSDN Library and passed the MS 70-176 test on my first attempt. It took me quite awhile to get through the material and do the application exercises. While the book gave me a good foundation, it was not quite to the level required to pass the test so be sure to check other on-line sources the get a feel for the test and then augment as required with another reference.

The authors explanation of a topic often leaves me scratching my head in a stae of confusion. I am writing this review in a state of frustration as I 'attempt' to do the "Apply Your Knowledge" exercises at the end of Chapter 6. Nowhere in the book, on the CD, or at the New Riders website have I been able to find a "completed version" of the code needed to do the exercises. If you get stuck you're out of luck! This is already the second "Apply Your Knowledge" exercise that I have not been able to complete. The authors teaching style simply doesn't mesh with my learning style. Be forewarned, unless you already know VB inside out, don't expect to get through the exercises without another reference or a friendly mentor. (I have found some of the answers I needed in John Smileys book, "Learn To Program With Visul Basic Examples") Another warning: The code that IS provided does not always work. You'll have to do some tweaking to make it work.

As another reviewer pointed out, the "Exam Questions" are not in the same league as Transcender. However, my knowledge of Visual Basic 6.0 has grown by reading and answering the "Exam Questions". Don't expect too much from the CD. It's basically useless. The book itself might be "somewhat" useful as a reference after the exam.

I will end my review by quoting another reviewer. "The packaging is generally more professional than the package itself, and that's a bad reflection on both author Hawhee and publisher New Riders." Don't buy this book unless you can find it at a deeply discounted price. It's not worth $70!

I bought this book hoping to learn advanced Visual basic so I get prepared for the MCSD exams. Having read Microsoft's VB6 step by step as my only background, the Hawhee's book turned out to be too advanced for me. This book isn't for beginners. If somebody could help me with names of good books to get a professional , I would be grateful!(my email is F_magdy@hotmail.com)

I think a novice would be at risk in using this book, whether to learn Visual Basic, to prepare for the exams, or both.

Prospective buyers should know right up front that this book contains several inexcusable errors. Plan a solid half hour to download the errata from the publisher's website and then mark up the corrections before beginning to read. (The publisher's errata file is by no means comprehensive, however, so you must still be on your guard--and the downloadable PDF errata file itself was so poorly formatted that the text ran irreparably past the margins, and I had to guess at the missing words of several sentences.)

The CDROM-based practice exams provided with the book are marginal at best, and are no substitute for the Transcender exams (which I highly recommend). Some of the questions are either dead wrong or address topics completely ignored in the book (one purveyor of the MS documentation style is enough, thank you!). The inexperienced will learn erroneous things through the exams, and experienced VB users may soon question the value of their purchase.

In printing the user's incorrect exam answers for review, the software behaves more like a prototype than something for commercial release (developers: don't let this happen to you!), offering the user only the default printer and no control over page margins, font size, etc. This is just one of many "little things" that could have rendered the whole book/CD package a more professional product, had it been done right.

Having said all of the above, there are some good aspects of the book. It provides some useful coverage of most of VB's features, and it could certainly serve as a post-exam resource or refresher. But this is almost certainly not the best book to serve that purpose.

I'm not sorry I bought this book, but I'm disappointed in the product which it--together with the CD--comprises. The packaging is generally more professional than the package itself, and that's a bad reflection on both author Hawhee and publisher New Riders.

--TW

I passed both exams using this book and the trancenders. I would guess that this book alone, along with practical experience would be enough, but the trancenders definately help. The book covers all objectives, most of which very well. My only complaints: there are several errors in the text and examples; also I would have preferred having the book broken up by exam.

This book covers most all of what is needed for both exams. With this book combined with Transcender, you should pass both test easily. This book was my primary source of study of material for both exams and I did fairly well. If you are considering a VB certification book, I would strongly suggest using this one. If you are going for an MCSD, you might want to check-out the reviews on the other certification books in the MCSD Training series the publisher has put out - they all have very good reviews. I just wished they offered the MCSD 4-pack when I bought this book. Over the past several years I've read over a dozen books on VB and this is one of the few which impressed me.

Strong Points: * Very well written and easy to read. * A well structured book which follows the requirements of the exams. * Enough to pass exams. * Test Questions well done. * Great reference book for VB. * Good last minute review section. * Got COM? If not, then read this book.

There are a few weak areas about the book: * No coverage of N-tier development 5 - 7 tier development, which is on the distributed test. * Creating distributed media on CD (haven't seen this in any study guide, but there is a related question on the test). * Explaining DCOM vs MTS development. * There were of course some errors in the book, but nothing significantly bad. * Wish there were more on IIS and DHTML development, but since these were barely touched-on in the test, the information was enough. * This book was not around when I took the desk top test for the first time and had to use another book - and failed!

The readability of the book is very high the examples are well done. Don't let the 1300 pages scare you - remember there are two test - ie 1300/2 = 650 average pages per test. I used the book by reading all chapters except the ones for the distributed test, then took the Desktop Test. Next, I read the remaining few chapters and took the distributed test.

NOTE: Like all VB certification books, this is not a book for those just starting in VB; the reader should have a mid-level of knowledge of VB before beginning to study for the exams.

I'll try to summarize having read the book, took and passed both exams, and read everything below.

1. This is a very good overview of VB6.

2. This is a very good preparation for 176 - VB6 Desktop.

3. This is an OK preparation for 175 Distributed. You will probably not pass 175 if you rely on this book. Very short of MTS and DCOM material. As below, I suggest Transcender Test Exams. I used them for the first time on 175 and they were very good. They covered exactly the right material and they were harder than the actual exam.

Overall: One of the best technical books I have ever read. A reference worthy of keeping on the shelf even after you've passed.

I passed 70-076 with a 94% and 70-175 with a 90% after reading this book.

I agree with the other reviewers on these points:

There are a few errors (grammatical and technical).

Sure, it is a LOT of material (more than you need to pass), but it is a well rounded overview of the features of VB6. You won't regret reading it.

The coverage of the 70-175 exam objectives is a bit thin.

Use Transcender test prep to supplement this book. I found Transcender to be much closer to the actual exam than the questions in the book and on the CD Rom. Many questions on the actual exam were exactly the same as the Transcender questions.

I posted this review 7-13-2000. Email me at MGrosso@bwn.net if you have questions.

Good luck!

Now that I have completed the MDSD certification, I feel qualified to render judgment on the ton of books that I read. This one was simply the best. Many of the books out on the market are of very poor quality - including many that carry the Microsoft "Approved Study Guide" logo and many published by Microsoft itself. This one stands out from the crowd as being comprehensive, on point, well-written and relatively error-free. I was particularly impressed by the fact that the publisher had a web site where error corrections are available. I was initially skeptical about the idea of covering two exams in one book, but it turns out that there is a great deal of overlap between the two exams and it makes a lot of sense to cover all the material in one book. The practice exam software on the CD was realistic, although I wish it had a larger inventory of questions. Supplementing the book with Transcender software is a good strategy. Also, since this book is a bit ponderous, I would recommend the Exam Cram series for a final review.

I used this book to prepare for my first MCP exam as well as one or two others, and it is by far the best. It's more complete than any other 70-176 or 70-175 guide I've come across. Memorizing everything in the book as I did turned out to be a bit of an overkill for the exam, but better safe than sorry, right? The chapters are neatly divided into the different topics the test will cover. It also contains lots of review questions and a practice test both in the book and on CD-ROM. The CD-ROM test is especially helpful because the practice test on it is about the same as the real thing. There were several other examples at the end of each chapter to give you a hands-on demonstration of how things are working. These tended to have a number of errors included in them, but if you take a second and think, you should be able to figure them out and catch on to the concepts behind them.

I used this book and the Transcender exams to pass both exams. The book is a little light on details regarding some of the ActiveX controls, Packaging and Deployment Wizard, and DCOM, but other than that it's excellent, and using the Transcender exams highlights the areas that the book didn't cover in detail.

I cleared both the Distributed and the Desktop Visual Basic Exams using this book. This was the only book I used along with the Transcender test for the Desktop exam. This book presents concepts simply and effectively. It contains Hands-on Review exercises and presents many questions to test your basic understanding of the core concepts required for the exams. It is also an excellent review guide for later.

This is a very good book. Unlike so many other exam prep books, the authors display a deep understanding of VB and computing in general. You get help in passing the VB exams PLUS a deeper understanding of the subject itself. You can tell that the authors are interested in helping you become a better programmer and they have a lot to offer in the furtherance of that cause. Also, the material is presented in a comprehensive way. After you pass the tests, you will want to keep this book on the shelf as a reference. (There are a few errors. If you read carefully, you will spot them.) Here is something that I learned: the reviews that Amazon publishes are a goldmine of information. Getting past Microsoft certification is an important and difficult mission and if you embark on it with an inferior study guide, things are going to be rough: tear stains on your mouse pad -- deep teeth marks on the book itself. I found this excellent book by reading the Amazon reviews and I will never buy another computer book again without reading them first.

I just passed the VB 6Desktop exam and this book was the first resourse I used for the actual test. It thoroughly explains all the required topics for the exam. Plus I think it's a good reference source for work. Some of the readers are right to point out that the book is big. Indeed, it is! However, I believe that if you can read the whole book, complete the exercises at the end of the chapters, take the tests included on the CD and then remember maybe 60% of what you read and learned, you'll be in pretty good shape. After finishing this book, you can start taking the Transcender Exams and get some pratice that way. I believe the Transcender exams are a must! A lot of the questions on the Transcender tests are similar to the ones on the actual test. No amount of reading can simulate the test taking environment and the type of questions you'll encounter on the real test like Transcender exams do. Also, this book is very weak on Package and Deployment, given the relatively large numbers of questions that appear on the exam for this topic. I used the Microsoft MSDN to get this information. I believe a lot of the questions related to Package and Deployment are derived from the information contain on the MSDN library. I also read the VB 6 desktop by Michael MacDonald but I wouldn't recommend it that much. It contains a lot of syntax errors and typos, which can throw you off. You can get if you can spare the money or better yet you can get the whole VB6 Exam Cram set. The VB 6 Distributed book by Thomas Fox is included in the set. This is also an excellent book. I used it for the Desktop exam as well. A lot of the information and questions overlap between the two exams. So, what whatever amount of information you can gather from reliable sources helps. Howard Hawhee and Thomas Fox wrote very reliable books in my opinion. Good luck on the test!

This is a good book if you have the time to go through every chapter. If you think you know enough on the topic and just want to skip around or to just study the exam questions at the end of the chapter - this is where the book falls down. The code for the examples or questions is not included on the CD or available for download. Many of the questions at the end of the chapters rely on the code from previous chapters. So if you want to learn advanced ADO, you might have to go back a chapter and do the previous chapter's exercises and that chapter may use other code from a previous chapter, and so on. I found this absolutely MADDENING.

The book is all inclusive in it's coverage of the exam topics. It is also well thought out and easy to read. Inclusion of the code would have made this a great book for exam prep and reference.

The benefit of this book is that it provides an intelligently structured approach to reviewing the material needed to pass the VB exams for the MCSD certification.

On the other hand, the text itself is rife with errors of fact, which is not acceptable in a technical manual and especially not in a book that purports to help you review for technical exams that may be worth thousands of dollars to you. For example, chapter 9, exam question 7 has no right answer because none of the T-SQL code samples actually work!

In a backward sort of way, this book will prepare you for exams 70-175 and 176 because you'll reference Microsoft's documentation so often to correct errors in the text that you'll know your subject by the time you've worked your way through the book.

Two stars for the review outline, but there's probably something better on the market.

I passed 70-176 about a week or two ago. This book was 90% of my preparation efforts. I supplemented the book slightly with the MSDN Library which is available on the MSDN website. I didn't use the Transcender tests, but I can definitely see where they would be valuable in preparing for the test. (I just didn't want to spend $200 on something I would likely never use again after the test). This book, however, is great as a reference and as a study guide. I would have given it five stars but it is very weak on Packaging and Deployment, as everyone else has said. Really, Really study this book (that means LEARN, not become acquainted with) and you should be fine.

I passed the 70-176 test today and I don't think I could have done it without this book, as well as the Transcender sample tests. Read the book cover to cover doing most of the exercises. Then took all of the tests. The first time I took each of the three Transcender tests, I failed. This led me to more review, which led me to take the sample tests again. I was extremely nervous about taking the real test, but I did quite well, which leads me to believe that these certification tests represent 60 percent understanding of VB and some 40 percent of How to Take a Test! This book, Transcender, and some experience will help you pass. But it still is alot alot of work. Plan on heavy duty study for about a month. Do all of the exercises, answer all of the questions, highlight heavily, and when you are done, go back and thoroughly review all of your highlights. Know Package and Deployment and Debugging very, very well, and you should do fine. Good luck.

Excellent choice for those with experience to fill the gaps. However, this is not a book for those who never write VB. The contents well cover what were on the test. I used it as the only reading source to pass both the tests. The book is a little weak on MTS and Package and Deployment Wizard but you can find those information in the MSDN.

I passed BOTH the 70-175 and 70-176 on the first try (with HIGH scores). These were the last exams to complete my MCSD. Although I have many years experience in VB, as most of us know, we can't know everything about everything. This book helps fill in the cracks as well as a refresher on details known, but forgotten.

A lot of MCSD candidates are very busy these days. This book covers what needs to be covered and ignores what needs to be ignored.

While not perfect, it is one of the best in its class. It does what it was designed to do, teach you enough to pass the exam - IF you have some experience behind the reading to attach the information to.